Property Point

I got out of my car near my office in Victoria St the other day and was swooped by a pee wee that came from behind and landed a peck on my head.

Like most people, I’m not a big fan of being swooped but it’s usually aggressive male magpies that bring me grief during their breeding season, although I’ve clashed with a few plovers over the years.

It probably makes me a bad person but I often think rogue, aggressive male magpies are given a bit too much latitude when they constantly, aggressively chase and attack people.

I’ve seen young girls and boys on push bikes careening dangerously onto the street in panic as they try to escape a swooping magpie.

I was at the Mackay Base Hospital a few years ago and there was a magpie-swooping sign that warned patients, visitors and staff to beware of a particularly aggressive bird.

Patients, who already had enough to worry about, had the additional issue of being swooped if they dared get out of their room to enjoy some fresh air.

In my view we should be protecting kids, old people and hospital patients ahead of dangerous magpies and remove the ones who are clearly rogue and aggressive.

Although, as I said, I am a bad person so I would think that.

But I’ve never had a problem with pee wees before. They seem to be smart birds and I have seen them team up and attack predatory crows hanging around pee wee nests. Pee wees dive into my pool in the heat of summer and they are welcome guests.

What surprised me about being swooped by one the other day was not just that it was a pee wee but that it was in Victoria St. It got me wondering about why pee wees and other birds like city life so much. Surely life is better in Habana or Balnagowan or out in Devereux Creek.

Apparently there are good nesting places on buildings that are safe and fewer natural predators in the City Heart. There might be an unfortunate “fast food” dietary element as well, although I don’t see pee wees behaving in the disgraceful way ibis do around city garbage bins.

Like the pee wees, many humans are drawn to life in the City Heart. Other people like living outside the city and enjoy the space, privacy and tranquility of life in those areas outside suburbia.

I can understand that because in a busy, bustling world of business and traffic and pressure, your home and your land becomes a private sanctuary and your daily escape.

But, like the pee wees, plenty of people are drawn to the convenience and abundance of nesting places in the city.

People can step out of their unit or house and be in the café, restaurant or pub in minutes. Go for a morning walk along the river bank. Getting to work is a breeze and you’re right near all the shopping you need.

I like the architecture of Mackay’s City Heart and it’s an easy place to get around by foot.

The council often talks about getting more residents into the City Heart and I think it would be terrific to see more people living there.

We have several high-rise apartment blocks along the river but it would be great to see more and you can only imagine what a transformation of the city there would be if further development happened along the river. What about all those buildings along Wood St and Victoria St with space on their second levels?

At the moment a lot of the city-dwellers seem to be homeless people, which is a tragic and difficult problem of our times.

Rather than the homeless, I would love to see a City Heart bustling with more people enjoying their life in the CBD. Although they would have to watch out for the pee wees.

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